Future Pro photo contest at Microsoft will make you mad.

[clupica]

Microsoft on their Pro Photo website is sponsoring a contest for Future Pro Photographers. The catch is you have to be actively enrolled in a University. I think that this is an affront to anyone not of college age that aspires to become a pro and I think the photo community ought to send them (Microsoft) a clear message that even us older shutter-bugs have dreams of becoming a pro. And a contest that leaves me out because I'm not a twenty something college student strikes at my dream. Anyone with a dream of becoming a Pro Photographer ought to be able to enter.

Send Microsoft an email complaining about this to [email protected]

Charlie

[Manamo]

plenty of contests around, each one has criteria. For example, some are restricted to France, what if you live in Germany, at 100 meters from the border?
MC

[jinju]

Are you SERIOUSLY dreaming of becoming a pro through a contest held by Microsoft?:) Sorry to break the news but pros dont usually take the route of TE - contest - pro. Its their contest, their rules. And I sort of agree with them. Perhaps they want to help out a young photographer just staring out on that road. If at your age you are still dreaming of being a pro and posting on TE is your chosen route of trying to realize it, Ill bet 10 bucks your dream will remain a dream. get realistic, please. Microsoft isnt crushing your dream, your naivete is.

[clupica]

I never claimed that posting on TE would be a route to professional photography, that takes hard work, marketing, persistence and good photos plus a dose of luck. No, I am actively working toward that independently of any online source. I am currently preparing my work for exibition.

The prise in this contest is $25'000; $20,000 worth of camera gear and $5000 in software and supporting materials. You tell me where there is another contest with this kind of prise (and no entry fee). $25'000 would help launch any career. Why should it be limited to college students? Why didn't Microsoft open the contest to everyone? (I am and have been a long time supporter of MS so don't take it as MS bashing).)

IMHO, there are far too many programs that try to give a leg up to 18-25 year-olds and nearly nothing for anyone else as they get older. And winning a contest can help because a major contest win gives great marketng material and will open doors to galleries that would have been closed otherwise.

I have my goals (better word than dream) and I will realize my goals. Unless posting on TE is only for amateurs that wish to remain amateurs.

Somehow "thier contest, their rules" is supposed to make everything OK. This may be so but I can point out to them that I don't like it.